BlueJay
by TheMasterPlan7823
Summary: It was already a weird day, but explosions leave a more bitter taste in ones metaphorical mouth. Forced to flee to Vault 111, the Howard family is separated by two bullets and a kidnapping, leaving Jason, Nate and Nora's first son, to save his baby brother, Shaun, by any means necessary
1. A really big boom

It's always a very strange morning to find yourself waking up on your bedroom floor, taking half of the sheets with you. But no matter how long you want to wait, you'll eventually get up. Shaking off the remaining grogginess from last night (Football Sunday), I slowly dragged myself towards the bathroom, flipping the light switch and waiting for the light's flickering to stop. The clock by the tooth-brushes read '4:23 AM', I tried thinking of all the reasons why I woke up that early, but all trains of thought brought me to the same conclusion... I hit the floor hard enough to break me away from dreamland.

"Yeesh, I couldn't imagine my luck getting worse..." I said through a mouth full of toothpaste.

I brushed, rinsed, spat, and rinsed again to get the taste out of my mouth. I met my gaze in the mirror, noting whether or not I should get a haircut, I mean, my hair is a bit longer than I usually have it cut, with my bangs and sides cut short, styling it to the side, my hair is now slightly above my eyes and straight. My ears suddenly perked up, noticing a small clinking noise coming from the kitchen. Figuring that someone else, probably Dad, was already awake, I might as well try to do something productive.

"...Le's see..." Dad mumbled, shifting through the fridge.

I knocked on the wall, immediately catching his attention, dad grabbed a carton of orange juice from the fridge and two glasses from the cupboard.

"Morning, Jason..." He tiredly said before yawning loudly and taking a seat at the table.

"Mornin'." I responded while taking a seat next to him.

Dad poured orange juice into the glasses and nudged one to me, I gladly took it and started drinking.

"So, apparently school will be cut short from the nuclear threat." Dad suddenly said, almost causing me to nearly spit my drink out.

I flashed him a look that said, 'Seriously?! Why now?!', making Dad laugh a bit.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine. I heard that the war will be ending soon."

I sighed with relief, before remembering something that I wanted to ask for a while.

"Hey, can I see the stuff in the basement?" I asked.

Dad nodded and downed his orange juice in a single gulp.

I placed my glass on the table as dad opened the backdoor and unlocked the basement, I followed him down to where he keeps his great-great grandpa's things, as well as a some of his old military stuff. He reached for the light switch, showing the decorations of the room, old medals kept in cases, an older army jacket, and an old M1 carbine.

"Jaysus... Fanatic much?" I joked.

Dad chuckled, "I just find it respectful. If you join the army, it's advised that you commemorate your family."

"Then I'll stick with being a runner." I replied.

~Five hours later

"...Now, will you stop hogging the mirror and give me a turn?" Mom demanded.

"Right, right..." Dad sounded almost defeated.

I sat on a stool next to Shaun's crib, staring down at the small, sleeping body, gently caressing his forehead. Seems like I was stuck in a trance for some time.

"Jason! Codsworth made breakfast!" Mom called from the other room.

Codsworth overdid himself again, I could smell the bacon and pancakes. Yum, my favorite. As soon as I sat down and started eating, Shaun started crying in the other room, Codsworth immediately flew over with some fresh nappies... His dialect is getting to me, OH GOD ITS SPREADING!

There was a knock at the door, Mom immediately raised her head before turning her attention back to the paper.

"Hey, Nate, can you get the door? It's probably that salesman again, comes for you everyday." Mom shouted.

"I'll be there in a second!" Dad yelled from the bathroom.

Dad walked to the door and opened it, outside was a guy in a yellow trilby and trench coat.

"Morning, Vault-Tec calling!" He said enthusiastically.

"Hello, do you need something?" Dad asked.

"I'm a representative of Vault-Tec, sir! I'm just here to ask you and your family a couple of questions." He said, pulling out a pen and handing it to Dad.

Dad stared at the little design on the pen, what looked like an eyeball and with two short lines and a longer one on either side.

"Vault-Tec... Remind me, what are they about?"

"We are about you, to help secure your future. You see, Vault-Tec is the foremost builder of state-a-the-art underground nuclear fallout shelters. A luxury accommodation, where you can wait out the horrors of nuclear devastation. I just glad to have finally got to meet you sir, I've been trying for days, a matter of utmost urgency." He gladly stated, reaching his free hand out.

"You too." Dad said as they shook hands, "But what is so important that you need to make a house call?"

The Vault guy adjusted his hat and handed his clipboard to Dad, "It's a small matter of gathering some information, you've been pre-selected into the local Vault 111, because of your family's service to our country."

Dad nodded and motioned for Mom and I to sit with him on the couch, he and Mom just had to fill out a description of their physical attributes. Dad handed the clipboard and pen to me, where I got a good look of what this thing is all about.

'List the seven defining attributes that make you SPECIAL! Rate yourself!'

Strength - 4

Perception - 6

Endurance - 5

Charisma - 8

Intelligence - 7

Agility - 8

Luck - 6

Dad got up and handed the clipboard back to the guy.

"Thank you, I'm going to walk this over to the Vault. Oh, and congratulations on being prepared for the future! And keep the pen." He said before getting into a van.

"Um, thanks..." Dad mumbled as he got back on the couch with us.

"Hey, it's peace of mind. Worth a little paperwork, right?" Mom asked.

For you and the kids? No price is too high... Right, Dad?

"For you and the kids? No price i-

READ LIKE A BOOK!

Shaun started crying again, I got up and walked over to his room, Codsworth meeting me halfway through the hallway.

"Um, young Shaun has been changed, but he absolutely refuses to calm down. Perhaps you should use that 'brotherly affection' that you seem to be so good at." He said.

"I'll get right on it. Thanks, Cods..." I said before letting Codsworth pass, walking into Shaun's room.

Shaun was crying in his crib, I patiently walked over to him and held out my hand. Noticing that it was me, Shaun stopped crying and wrapped his little fingers in my palm.

"You're a piece a' work, you know that?" I mumbled, keeping my hand out while Shaun started cooing.

"And how are my two boys doing?" Mom said from the doorway, "Spin the mobile around, he loves it."

Sighing, I pressed the button on the mobile and it played a soft tune and spun slowly.

"Hey, I was thinking that we should go to the park after we clean up." Mom said.

"Planning a get together with friends?" I asked with a smug look on my face.

"Um, Mum? Jason? You should come and see this!" Codsworth called from the other room.

"Codsworth? What's wrong?" Mom asked as she ran from the room.

I looked over to Shaun, "Sit tight, I'll be back." Shaun cooed in response, "Love you too."

"Followed by flashes... Yes, blinding flashes... Sounds of explosions. We're trying to get confirmation. We have four reports of nuclear detonation in... New York and Pennsylvania." The TV reporter read.

"We need to get to the vault. Now!" Dad called, "Jason, grab Shaun!"

I ran back to retrieve a crying Shaun, I could her someone over a loudspeaker reminding everyone of how fucked we are. Everyone ran through a forest path and up a hill, I handed Shaun over to Mom, my hands sweat a lot in times of stress. I could hear that Vault-Tec guy yelling at someone, we got up there and Dad had a short talk with the Vault guys, "Infant... Teenage male... Adult male... Adult female... Alright, go ahead." was about all I heard.

"Step on the platform, in the center!"

The platform looked like a gear with 111 written in yellow, how this is going to help, I don't know.

"Almost there, we're going to be okay!" Dad said, pulling Mom and I into a hug.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something falling, when it hit the ground, an explosion made everyone turn to the loud banging noise, slowly rising and reaching towards us. But before it got any closer, the lift went down and a metal plate sealed above us.

"We... we made it." I said through deep breaths, felt like having a damn heart attack.

The lift went down for a few seconds, before stopping. We were instructed to walk up the stairs, grab a jumpsuit, and follow the doctor. He told us to step in a pod looking thing and put on the suit, we did, and I got a long look at the pod, it had a round shape on the inside, leg holders and three head rest, two on the sides and one in the middle, but the space makes it so it's built for two people.

"Mom, Dad, I'll see you in a bit." I said before stepping in and taking a seat in the middle. Getting a view of Mom, Dad, and Shaun across from me.

"The pod will decontaminate and depressurize you before we head deeper in the Vault, just relax." The doctor said before walking off.

"Easy for you to say, asshole." I muttered under my breath.

The last thing in saw before my vision clouded up was my parents, they looked at me like everything was going to be okay...

They were dead wrong.


	2. Baby steps

'Manual override initiated. Cyrogenic statis suspended.'

I woke up sometime later, the air is really cold. Was I frozen? What is this, a science fiction book?

"This is the one, here." I heard a woman's voice say.

I looked up and saw my father and mother's pod, two people standing in front of it.

"Open it." The man in a leather jacket said.

The woman pressed a button and opened their pod. Mom and Dad started moving.

"Is it over/Are we okay?" They said.

"Almost. Everything is going to be fine." The woman replied before immediately grabbing for Shaun.

Mom tried to hold her off, Dad tried to get up from his pod before immediately getting shot.

"No!" I yelled, desperately trying to break the glass.

The woman grabbed Shaun from Mom's hands, the guy shot mom too.

Believe how hard I was trying to break the glass, but my arms felt sluggish. Looking at it now, you'd say I wasn't trying at all. In some kind of vain hope, I thought I could've saved them. The pod became a lot colder for some reason.

~60 years later

My pod slowly opened, something pushed me out and brought me to the floor. I coughed and wheezed.

"No... no..." I kept repeating.

I looked up at their pod, banging my hands against it. I brought myself up and looked at them through the glass. I pressed a button and flipped a switch on the side-console. The door opened slowly. Seeing their bodies immediately brought me to tears, I walked to them and fell to the ground.

"I promise I'll find them... and I'll make them pay." I growled.

I got up and took their wedding rings, putting them in my pocket, trying to find the door. A large metal door and a small console with green light seemed to be my ticket out. Pipes must've burst, because there were puddles everywhere. I kept hearing scuttling noises around me, in desperate need of a weapon, I ran into one of the rooms and grabbed a folding chair and some kind of needle with a dial on it. I looked for a bag to put it in and found a backpack, I put the needle in there and looked over to a computer, I got on and read the files. Apparently, this vault is a testing facility to see how cryo-freeze works on people. Looks like they succeeded, if I'm any proof of that.

"They're probably dead now, no use of holding a grudge." I mumbled.

~BGM: Doom 2016 - BFG Division

I notice a tab labeled 'lockdown all clear'. I clicked on it and the voice over the PA said, "Lockdown released". I opened the emergency door and made a break for the exit. I stopped when I noticed a bug in my way, you might call it cowardly, but I call it justified, why? Because the damn thing is the size of a small dog! I gripped my chair and snuck up on it, a giant cockroach, hooray! I smashed it's head in and it's guts spilled out, smelled horrible. I just kept my mouth shut and kept moving. Any other roaches I came across got their disgusting head caved in, and it seems that my reflexes are still working, any time a roach flew up and tried to bite me, I blocked with the chair or side stepped in time. Several dead roaches later and another door, I had found myself in an office, the place didn't smell as bad as the previous room. There was a gun on the desk in the center of the room, as well as a box of bullets. Of course, like any smart person, I dove for the gun. It was a .44 magnum revolver, I knew that because it said so on the side of the gun, it had a snubnose and a full cylinder. Inside the box was seventy-two bullets, making seventy-eight with the ones in the gun. I put the box in my bag. Hopping over the desk and stepped on dry bone, making a loud cracking sound.

"How long was I asleep?" I thought aloud.

I think that science was one of my best subjects in school, there I learned that it would normally take around three to five years for a body to decompose down to a skeleton, combined with the cockroach infestation and possible inbreeding, I'd say a very long time.

There was another computer on the desk, wanting some information on the time, my suspicions were proved correct but no measure of time was given. The computer had a option titled "Open Evacuation Tunnel".

"My ticket out..." I chuckled as the door slid open, I pulled out my gun and cocked the hammer back. "Showtime."

Eight cockroaches came out of the walls, I took aim and pulled the trigger, the recoil satisfyingly going up my arm as I did so. One roach down. Another came up and jumped, with all the reaction reflex I had, I smacked it with the butt of my gun, caving it's head in. I shot five more and waited for the other two to get over to me, stomped on the closest one and shot the other after reloading.

Finally, after what felt like forever, I reached the end, the room had a large door at the end, and a console for opening said door by the side. By the console, there was another skeleton, and next to that was its severed arm, some weird olive green... thing with a screen, one of those 'portable computers' dad would talk about. I grabbed it and inspected before clamping it around my wrist. But as soon as I locked it, I felt a sharp pain on top of my forearm, like being stuck with a needle. Seems like this is so it can record my vitals, apparently my heart is beating one hundred two times a minute. I gripped the white plug on this wrist mounted computer and plugged it into a socket on the console, then pressed the button to open the door.

~BGM: Fallout 4 theme - Inon Zur

"Vault door opening sequence initiated, please stand back"

"Time to go..." I mumbled, running my fingers on Mom and Dad's wedding rings.

Light cracked from the opening door, I ran through the partly opened door and set the lift to go up. Whatever's up there... I just hope that there might be someone who can help me.

The sun was blinding, I had to cover my eyes just because it was so bright. Felt like a bat afterwards. When my vision reset, I noticed the destruction all around me. Rusted fences and industrial equipment, barely any grass, a lot warmer out here than below.

"Wonder if the house is still standing?" I mumbled aloud.

I retraced my steps from the vault to the parkway, making it back to the old cul-de-sac I called home. Some of the old houses were still standing, as I was thinking about this, I heard someone humming... Wait, don't tell me...

Codsworth, not as shiny from the wrapper as he used to be, was running an old sponge up and down a old wall.

"Codsworth?" I said.

He turned and had his three sensor eyes pointed at me, he would probably be crying if he could.

"As I live and breathe... It's... it's really you!" Hell, he even sounded like he was crying.

"Codsworth! What in the hell happened while I was gone?!" I demanded.

"Well, besides our geraniums still being the envy of Sanctuary Hills, I'm afraid things have been dreadfully dull around here. Things will be so much more exciting with you and your family back! Where are they, by the by?" Codsworth asked.

"They're dead, Mom and Dad are dead..." I mumbled.

"Oh... I'm, uh... I'm so terribly sorry to hear that. But, I think what you need is a... a distraction! Yes, something to take your mind off things."

Codsworth seemed more worried about me than what happened around him, seriously, how long was I in that damn pod?! But there was something else in my mind.

"...Checkers... Ooh, maybe charades! Shaun always loved that game, is he with you?" Codsworth kept on with his obliviousness.

"He was taken, I don't know who took him or where he went. All I know is that I have to find him." I said.

"Dear god, seems you're suffering from hunger-induced paranoia! Not eating properly for two-hundred and ten years will do that to you."

"Two hundred and ten years?! Has it really been that long?!" I shouted.

"Yes, actually! But that would make you over two centuries late for dinner! Ha ha ha, perhaps I could make you a snack instead?" Codsworth said while laughing.

It suddenly hit me, Codsworth has been acting strange for the time we've been talking... He's hiding something.

"Cods, you've been acting a bit... weirdly. Is something wrong?" I asked.

Codsworth stammered for a bit before bursting into robot tears, "It's been just horrible! Two centuries with no one to talk to, no one to serve! I spent the first ten years trying to keep the floors waxed, but nothing gets nuclear fallout from vinyl wood. Nothing! Another twenty on realizing the futility of dusting a collapsed house! And don't get me started about the car! Do you know how hard it is to polish rust?!"

I don't know why, but I laughed at his antics. Codsworth stood silent until I stopped.

"I must say, that was quite rude of you, sir." He said blankly.

"I'm sorry, I've never heard you get so emotional about something!" I recuperated myself and stood properly, "What do you know about... this?" I asked, waving my hands around to indicate pretty much everything.

Codsworth made some sniffling noises before clearing his voice, "I'm afraid I have no information that would prove valuable to you, sir. The bombs came and you and your family left in such a hurry. I thought for certain that you were... well, dead. I did find this holotape in the basement, your father left it for you, your brother, and mum."

He pulled a battered white tape and passed it to me. I pressed the play button and listened.

"To Nora, Jason, and Shaun-

It's come to this, China and America stuck in a Cold War, slowly starting to boil over.

War... it'll never change... I keep thinking back to my family's past, back in 1945, my great-great grandfather, serving in the army, wondered when he'd get to go home to his wife and the son he'd never seen. He got his wish when the US sped up to the end of World War ll by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While the World awaited Armageddon; instead, we found something miraculous. We began to use atomic energy not as a weapon, but as a nearly limitless source of power.

People enjoyed luxuries once thought the realm of science fiction. Domestic robots, fusion-powered cars, portable computers. But recently, people started waking up from that waking dream. Years of consumption lead to shortages of every major resource. The entire world unraveled. Peace became a distant memory, now we stand on the brink of total war, and I am afraid. For myself, for Nora, for Jason and Shaun - because if my time in the army taught me one thing: it's that war never changes. I love my family, I just hope this damn war would end..."

"Dad..." I mumbled.

"It might not seem like much, but may it remind you of happier days." Codsworth said, trying his best to cheer me up. "Now, enough feeling sorry for ourselves, how about we search the neighborhood together? We might be able to find some trace of young Shaun."

"Thank you, Cods..." I wiped snot on my sleeve, "Lead the way."

Codsworth went over into a yellow house and killed a couple of giant flies. I didn't even know they equipped service bots with a flamethrower, color me impressed, as far as I knew, the bots just had blowtorches.

"Wait... Oh, blast it! My sensors are picking up motion signatures in another house. Follow me!" Codsworth said before zooming out of the house.

Then he stopped.

"Actually, I think there might be something in our basement that might help you." He inquired before leading me back to the remains of our house. He opened the basement doors and let me go down first. Dads old jacket was reduced to nothing but a pile of strings and mothballs, and the posters and flags were now yellow tinted. The only things that were kept in decent shape were the M1 and Dads old combat knife.

"The only things I managed to keep clean, a brilliant job, if I do say so myself." Codsworth boasted as I reached for the gun.

It had a carving of a bluejay on the stock, a shoulder sling, and a full clip. On the desk under it was a wooden box that Dad kept extra bullets in, six more fifteen bullet clips, so one hundred and five bullets in total. The knife was next to said box, a nearly black blade in a leather sheath.

"Never thought I'd need these as much as I'd need them now." I said.

"Well, it is a good thing your father served in the army and taught you how to use firearms." Codsworth went on.

Let's see, 7.62x33mm rounds, that sheath has a loop that I can tie my belt through. Yep, I can move around with this.


End file.
